Franc-maon, Franc- Maonnerie

The French names of Freemason and of Freemasonry. The construction of these words is not conformable to the genius or the idiom of the French language, which would more properly employ the terms Mason libre, and Maonnerie libre; and hence Laurens, in his Essais historiques et critiques sur la Franc-Maonnerie, meaning Essays, Historical and Critical, on Freemasonry, adduces their incorporation into the language as an evidence that the Institution in France was derived directly from England, the words being a literal and unidiomatic translation of the English titles. But he errs in supposing that Franc-mason and Franc- Masonry are any part of the English language.